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Re: Sprint switches to LTE said by patcat88:Its obvious at this point Clearwire will switch to LTE, and Sprint's future will be an MVNO on Clearwire  Not necessarily. At this point, Clearwire still has enough spectrum to run both WiMAX and LTE.
On the otherhand, Sprint might take its spectrum (Xohm) out of the Clearwire partnership make that its LTE network. When users demand roaming/rural/suburban/highway coverage from Sprint, Sprint will HAVE to use whatever its roaming companies (ATT/Verizon) use. At this point, I don't know how easy it would be for Sprint to just "take" that spectrum back...As far as roaming, Verizon has stated that they'll operate their CDMA network until at least 2018-2020 so Sprint isn't exactly pressed for time on that end.
No buts, ifs or whats. CDMA/EVDO has atleast 5 if not 10 years left on it, so Sprint can't use 1900 for LTE any time soon.
Again, not necessarily. For one, they have 10MHz of spectrum on the PCS (1900) G band when they finish rebanding their SMR spectrum. Speaking of which, who's to say that they won't start migrating iDEN users off of that spectrum and start using it for LTE? Bottom line is that they do have options available to them if and when the need arises. | |
patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | said by DarnellP:Again, not necessarily. For one, they have 10MHz of spectrum on the PCS (1900) G band when they finish rebanding their SMR spectrum. Speaking of which, who's to say that they won't start migrating iDEN users off of that spectrum and start using it for LTE? Bottom line is that they do have options available to them if and when the need arises. The question is, what handsets will be available? If no phone manufacturer in asia wants to make a 1 carrier phone, the carrier will pay dearly for those custom handsets, and the customers won't come if the competitor has a cheaper handset/aircard. What if nobody makes an LTE chipset for that band? Will the carrier really pay Qualcomm or Infineon to make a custom chipset? Exotic wireless bands usually wind up being used for P2P backhaul or sold off or graveyarded (thanks FCC).
No PCS phones come with G band today. PCS G is as exotic as SMR. SMR band is really walkie talkies/taxi dispatch bands that were duct taped together to form a cell network by Nextel in the late 1980s/early 1990s in a very inventive way. The whole rebanding thing stems from that. | |
2 edits | said by patcat88:The question is, what handsets will be available? If no phone manufacturer in asia wants to make a 1 carrier phone, the carrier will pay dearly for those custom handsets, and the customers won't come if the competitor has a cheaper handset/aircard. What if nobody makes an LTE chipset for that band? Will the carrier really pay Qualcomm or Infineon to make a custom chipset? Exotic wireless bands usually wind up being used for P2P backhaul or sold off or graveyarded (thanks FCC). Hard to say, but its not stopping KDDI from deploying LTE on oddball 1.5GHz spectrum in Japan.
No PCS phones come with G band today. PCS G is as exotic as SMR. SMR band is really walkie talkies/taxi dispatch bands that were duct taped together to form a cell network by Nextel in the late 1980s/early 1990s in a very inventive way. The whole rebanding thing stems from that.
no phones today come with support for LTE. Does that mean it will never happen? No, of course not. Hardware is manufactured as it is needed. When there is a need for G band support, then it will be built. Moreover, there's nothing "exotic" about PCS G band or SMR spectrum.
ca.news.finance.yahoo.com/s/30102008/30/link-f-cnw-new-wireless-entrant-bmv-holdings-names-former-bell.html
Qualcomm Inc., the industry-leading chipset maker for handheld phones, has incorporated support for the PCS G Band spectrum in its standard chipsets for leading U.S. carriers. This technology can be readily applied to handsets in the Canadian market. "Qualcomm's comprehensive product portfolio includes innovative products that support nearly every frequency band in the world allocated for cellular data services," said Steve Brown, Senior Director of Product Management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "G Band spectrum represents exciting new opportunities for consumer wireless services. Qualcomm is happy to support BMV's efforts to help commercialize devices operating in these frequencies."
 something tells me it won't be a problem.... As far as the SMR spectrum, after rebanding, they will have 14MHz of contiguous spectrum that is in the middle of or adjacent to the frequencies that Europe will be using for 4G. Spectrum-wise, I just don't think they're in as precarious a position as you seem to be trying to make it appear. | |
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